The severe cold caused widespread power outages in Texas.
Extremely cold weather caused widespread power outages in southern Texas in the United States. Data from the U.S. utility tracking site PowerOutage showed that 495,000 people were still out of power in Texas as of earlier February 18.
In the face of the disaster, some American politicians frequently exposed “exotic” words and deeds. Following the public criticism of Texas Mayor Tim Boyd’s social Darwin remarks that “only the fittest can survive and the weak will only be eliminated”, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and his family on vacation have also been uncovered.
Some analysts say that the people of Texas suffer from power and water cuts, but some American politicians ignore their lives, shirk their responsibilities and blame each other, causing people to lose trust.
Politicians “escape”
The Chinese are no strangers to the name Ted Cruz. In the past few years, Cruz has been making up rumors about Hong Kong, Xinjiang and other places in China, interfering in China’s internal affairs, and was included in the Chinese government’s sanctions list in 2020.
This time, this unpopular politician in China has also been fooled in the United States.
According to the Hill newspaper on the 18th, Cruz admitted to the holiday on the same day, but defended that he went abroad to “satisfy his daughter’ wishes”.
The practice of using his family as a “shield” has once again aroused public criticism, and many people say that Cruz’s behavior is very hypocritical. American netizens have come up with some ironic hashtags: #FlyinTed #FledCruz.
American netizens label Cruz
Netizens wrote one after another, “Ted Cruz only cares about one person, that is himself” “He wants to bring back the sunshine and heat there (Mexico) and melt the snow in Texas.” “Cruz also said that he opposes hypocrisy, he is the embodiment of hypocrisy.”
Screenshot of Cruz’s appearance at the airport
Texas Democrats further “repone the knife”, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a press conference on the 18th: “Where he (Cruz) went must be much warmer… My job is to stay here until the situation is resolved.”
In public anger, even Republicans were unwilling to speak for him. Ray Sullian, who served in the administration of former Texas Governor Rick Perry, said the incident was “obviously wrong judgment” for Cruz. While senators cannot personally restore the grid, “Americans want elected officials to be fully engaged in responding to the crisis.”
The dissatisfaction of the American people with Cruz and others is not groundless. From the night of the 14th, parts of Texas have fallen into a widespread power outage. Due to the impact of electricity and heating, water pipes burst from time to time, and many families crowded in unheated cars.
In the cold, the people of Texas made a fire to warm themselves.
In Shugland, a grandmother and three grandchildren used a fireplace to warm up, which eventually caused a fire, killing all four people; in Houston, a mother and daughter drove an air conditioner in the garage to heat, and died of carbon monoxide poisoning; and a 78-year-old Texas man fell in his front yard and cold. He died after two hours of freezing…
The tragedy caused by the “paralysis” of Texas electricity has caused the American media to blow up. The New York Times has set up a special topic on its official website to update the latest progress of Texas blizzards and frozen rain in real time. The bold headline of The Wall Street Journal, “Desperate families venture to warm in the cold in Texas”, reminds the local government that people who do not see hope of relief can only live with gas stoves to warm themselves.
As the second largest state in the United States, Texas has 41% of petrochemical production and 28% of wind energy supply in the United States, known as the “energy heart”. Nowadays, this title has become a naked irony. “This is the biggest failure of a state that makes energy and electricity proud,” said the director of the University of Texas Energy Institute.
“Political and Cultural War” Resurres
Under the pressure of public opinion, the blame drama of the two parties in the United States about “who should be responsible for the power outage” has been staged again.
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa took the lead in attacking, criticizing Texas Governor Greg Abbott for pretending to vote only, not working for the people of Texas. This crisis could have been completely avoided.
In response, Abbott said in an interview that there is a separate part of the power system that cannot work now, and this part is the responsibility of private companies. To put it off, I can’t control this matter. He also “shakes the pot” to the Texas Electricity Reliability Commission (ERCOT), saying that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has intervened to investigate the power failure in the Midwest.
Schematic diagram of the three major power grids in the United States
According to CNN, ERCOT, founded in 1970, controls more than 90% of Texas’s power grid. Influenced by historical separatism, the Texas power grid is independent of the east and west power grids of the United States. This makes the Texas power grid unable to accept the deployment and reinforcement of other states, and will not adopt the federal grid system to cope with the cold winter.
CNN points out the disadvantages of Texas’ independent power grid
Ten years ago, Texas also suffered a cold winter that knocked down its power grid. A cold current caused more than 3.2 million households in Texas to cut off their power. The U.S. federal government has written a 350-page report and recommended its rectification, but it has not been implemented.
This time, ERCOT, which has become the target of public criticism, came up with a temporary plan: price increase. Starting Monday local time, the wholesale electricity price of Texas Power Grid has soared by more than 10,000%, and the real-time wholesale market price has climbed to $11,000 per megawatt, compared with less than $100. According to ERCOT, this is to avoid a more prolonged “catastrophic power outage”.
Politico News website believes that scientific issues have been seriously politicized again.
In the midst of the disaster, scientific issues were once again involved in the whirlpool of “political and cultural wars”. The Associated Press noted that some Republicans took the opportunity to blame the power outage on the heavy use of renewable energy such as wind energy, because a large number of wind turbines were frozen in the cold.
But the Wall Street Journal quoted an analysis from the Texas power grid manager as saying that wind power accounts for only 10% of winter power generation, while natural gas and coal account for 82%. Politico News website in the United States lamented that attitudes towards the cold climate have once again become the “identifier” of the party.
The crisis is not just a “power outage”
Under the blizzard, the gap between rich and poor in the United States has also emerged. In the past two days, several pictures of Austin, the capital of Texas, have been widely circulated on Twitter.
A contrast of light and shade widely circulated on Twitter
The Wall Street Journal noted that many wealthy communities in downtown Austin and the western part of the city are bright and bright and bright, and bright, while the eastern communities inhabited by more low-income residents and communities of color are gray.
A local newspaper in Austin said that the photo shows the power gap between downtown Austin and East Austin, which is a historical black and Hispanic community.
The local energy department explained that there is a lot of “important infrastructure” in the city center, such as hospitals, government buildings, etc. However, the situation of “priority” power outages by minorities is not in Austin. The New York Times said that in Houston, the black and Latino communities were also the first communities to cut off electricity.
The New York Times said that marginalized communities were one of the first to cut off electricity.
“Whether hurricane flooding or today’s severe cold disaster, these communities are the most affected and longest-lasting communities in terms of our history of coping with disasters,” said Robert Bullard, a professor at Texas Southern University.
“When disaster strikes, it’s the communities that we’ve historically ignored and not paid enough attention to,” the founder of a nonprofit organization in Austin, Texas, told The Washington Post.
Houston supermarket shelves are empty
What’s more worrying is that the impact of extreme cold weather on the people of Texas is not only power and water cut off, but also food supply has been seriously affected. Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro said on social media that things are “even worse than the beginning of the pandemic”, with grocery stores, fast food restaurants and gas stations in unprecedented queues, and many stores, including pharmacies, closed.
At present, the extreme cold weather sweeping through the southern states of the United States is still continuing. In addition to Texas, there are casualties in Louisiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Missouri and other places. The Associated Press warned that “the United States needs to be prepared for more deadly storms”. Text/Old)
